King Alfred's English, a History of the Language We Speak and Why We Should Be Glad We Do

by Laurie J. White

After mentioning the great quantity of Christian-based Latin words adopted into English at this time, we should also note the fact that pagan beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons linger on in our language as well. For instance, names for four of our days of the week are straight from the gods and goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons: Tuesday—Tew or Tiu’s Day, the god of war Wednesday—Woden’s Day, the god who carried off the spirits of the dead Thursday—Thor’s Day, the god of thunder Friday—Frigg or Freya’s Day, the goddess of love The names for Sunday and Monday are the Germanic version of the Roman name for that day. In other words, the Romans called the first day of the week after the sun. It was Dies Sol in Latin for Day of the Sun, and the Anglo-Saxons picked up that idea but used their own word for the sun and called the day Sunday. Same thing with the moon for the second day…Dies Lunae in Latin became Monday (moonday) in English. Saturday, which is named after the Roman god Saturn (Saturnus in Latin) was the only day of the week that kept the original Latin word for its name. It’s Anglicized a bit, but pretty much the same. Our days of the week are a good example of how these early English folk mixed together their Germanic heritage with the Latin-Roman culture of the newly arrived Roman Catholic Church.